The state has approved the emissions plan for the Greene Energy Resource Recovery Project, clearing the way for construction of the waste coal power plant on the former LTV Mine site on the Monongahela River near Nemacolin, Greene County.

The $800 million, 525-megawatt power plant will use more than 3.1 million tons of waste coal a year from the Nemacolin, Isabella, Daisytown and Hawkins coal refuse piles in Washington, Fayette and Greene counties.

Wellington Development LLC, owner of the new power plant, will be required to meet federal new source standards that will limit mercury emissions to 22 pounds a year, and to continuously monitor mercury emissions.

The plant will use circulating fluidized bed combustion technology to burn a mix of 85 coal refuse and 15 percent newly mined coal.